FIG. 1 illustrates a small satellite dish 100 mounted on a wall 11 of a house 10 (house 10 is not completely shown for clarity). Satellite dish 100 includes a dish body 101 attached to a dish support 102 which is rotatably mounted on mounting tube 103 which in turn is supported on a mounting foot 104. Satellite dish 100 has a dish body 101 having a small diameter D=18 inches, such as the satellite dish called Digital Satellite System (DSS.TM.) manufactured by Thompson Electronics, under the RCA brand name.
Satellite dish 100 is mounted directly on a south facing wall or on a chimney or a pole. Mounting foot 104 (FIG. 1) has a footprint surface 105 which is a rectangular flat hard surface of an area 7 inches by 5 inches. Mounting foot 104 is designed to be lag bolted through a flat, smooth, rigid wall or roof to a single stud via two center holes (not shown). The wall or roof stud on which mounting foot 104 has been attached must be sufficiently strong to withstand up to approximately 200 pounds of weight and wind forces. In addition to the two center holes, mounting foot 104 also has four outer holes for bolts used to stabilize satellite dish 100.
Being mountable on a flat surface, satellite dish 100 cannot be mounted on a wall or roof which has an uneven surface, such as wood shake roofs, aluminum siding walls, vinyl siding walls and textured walls. In such cases, satellite dish 100 can be mounted on a ground pole, or a chimney. Furthermore, satellite dish 100 must be mounted in some cases in the front portion of a house, to ensure that dish body 101 faces the southern direction, towards the equator, for receiving signals from an equatorial satellite, for example, a satellite located at 105 longitude at the equator.